African Fusion July 2022

SAIW Member Profile: Steinmuller Africa

Steinmüller Africa: the steam generation expert

African Fusion talks to Steinmüller Africa Director, Moso Bolofo, about the company’s legacy and its ongoing fab rication and service offering to boiler- and process-steam operators in South Africa and across the African continent.

“ W e have been in this country since 1962, so we have a 60-year legacy, largely in the power generation sector,” begins Moso Bolofo, the Steinmüller Africa Director. “We started with the now old stations of Grootvlei and Hendrina, then went on to the other baseload stations of Kriel, Duvha, Tutuka and Majuba. “In recent times, we have been subcon tractors to Hitachi for the fabrication of the Medupi and Kusile boilers, which are supercritical boilers that operate at main steam conditions of 240 bar at 560 °C, with reheat temperatures up to 570 °C. This requires Level 1 high-pressure pipework, which is an area of expertise for us,” Bolofo tells African Fusion . Steinmüller Africa, he adds, also oper ates in other industries that use steam, be it for use in their production processes, as in the pulp and paper and sugar industries, or for the generation or reticulation of

tion and, thereafter, to the maintenance and all theway through the service life until de-commissioning.” World-class fabrication capabilities “In our capacity as an OEM, we did fabrica tion and construction work for the early power stations, Hendrina, Duvha, Tutuka, Kriel and Majuba and the construction of Matimba power station. Later we were subcontracted for manufacturing of the Medupi andKusile new-builds andwewere a lead contractor for the fabrication of the HP piping,” notes Bolofo. Consequently, Steinmüller Africa has accumulated local manufacturing capa bilities that cover a wide range of high pressure components for steam boilers. “Our large-scale facilities in Pretoria North have world-class fabrication equipment, such as our Oerlikon Automatic nipple welding system for steam headers; and the Cojafex Induction Bending Machine for

pipe spools, bothof whichareunique to the African continent,” he says. The company’s Pretoria facilities have 50 000 m² of under-roof fabrication work shops, with a lifting capacity of up to 50 t. “We have bays up to 35 m wide and 700 m long and a pressure component produc tion capacity of 1-million hours per year,” continues Bolofo. Notablewelding equipment for fabricat ing HP boiler components includes: • A KLOOS semi-automatic CNC MIG fin welding system for sling tubes, which includes a chuck, a conveyer and two welding heads. • A PEMA six-head submerge-arc mem brane wall welding unit complete with 1.5 m wide by 30 m long conveyers; a turn-around mechanism; storage rack for flat bar and tube; shot blast stations;

that steam, as in the petro chemical plants and the fuel refineries. Fromdoing all the fabrica tion and following up with the installation and com missioning of several early boilers, the company has progressed to become a key service provider for ongoing plantmaintenance. “Sowhen it came to mothballing and de-mothballing the return to-service plants – Camden, Grootvlei and Komati Power Stations, for example – we were there, doing whatever was needed to make it hap pen,” he says, pointing out that Steinmüller’s history proves the claim of being an end-to-end service provider, that “really does look at the whole lifecycle of a plant, from conceptual design, manufacture and installa

Steinmüller Africa’s header nipple welder with two submerge arc heads and an inner fusion TIG head, with each head able to travel across a 28 m length. Right: A completed header manufactured by Steinmüller Africa in Pretoria North as part of its Medupi and Kusile new-build contract.

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July 2022

AFRICAN FUSION